The Chinese Maze Murders

by Robert Van Gulik

  As soon as Woo was kneeling the judge took from his sleeve a cardboard box and pushed it over the edge of the bench. It fell down with a thud in front of Woo.

  He looked at it curiously. It was the box discovered in the sleeve of the murdered General. The corner the mouse had gnawed off had been neatly repaired.

  The judge asked: "Are you familiar with that box?"

  Woo looked up.

  "This", he replied, "is the kind of box they sell sweet plums in. I have seen hundreds of them on sale on the market of the Drum Tower. Occasionally I have bought one myself. Thus, although I am indeed familiar with such boxes in general, I have never seen this particular one. The congratulatory inscription on top evidently means that it was offered to someone as a present."

  "You are quite right", Judge Dee said, "it is an anniversary present. Do you mind tasting the plums inside?"

  Woo gave the judge a bewildered look. Then he shrugged his shoulders and replied:

  "Not in the least, Your Honour!"

  He opened the box. Nine plums were neatly arranged on a layer of white tissue paper. Woo poked them with his forefinger. When he had found a soft one he put it in his mouth. He ate it and spat the stone on the floor.

  "Does Your Honour wish me to eat more?", Woo asked politely.

  "This is quite sufficient!", Judge Dee said coldly. "You may stand back!"

  Woo rose and looked around at the constables. They made no move to grab him and lead him back to the jail. So he retreated a few paces and remained standing there. He looked curiously at the judge.

  "Let Candidate Ding come forward!", Judge Dee ordered.

  As Ding knelt in front of the bench Judge Dee spoke:

  "Candidate Ding, I have now discovered who killed your father. This case proved to be a singularly complicated one, I don't pretend to have disentangled all its ramifications. Your father's life was threatened from more than one side, and more than one attempt was made to kill him. This court, however, is concerned only with the one attempt that succeeded. The accused Woo has nothing to do with that. Hence the case against Woo Feng is herewith dismissed!"

  A murmur of astonishment rose from the crowd. Candidate Ding remained silent, he did not repeat his accusation of Woo.

  Woo cried out:

  "Your Honour, has White Orchid been found?"

  When the judge shook his head Woo turned round without another word and unceremoniously elbowed his way through the spectators to the door of the court hall.

  Judge Dee took a red-lacquered writing brush from the bench.

  "Rise, Candidate Ding", he ordered, "and tell me what you know about this brush!"

  As he spoke the judge held out the writing brush to Ding, the open end of the shaft pointing straight at the young man's face.

  Candidate Ding looked dumbfounded. He took the brush from Judge Dee's hands and turned it round in his fingers. When he had read the engraved inscription he nodded his head.

  "Now I see the inscription I remember, Your Honour! Some years ago when my father was showing me some rare old jade pieces he also took out this writing brush. He told me that it was an advance gift for his sixtieth birthday from a very exalted personage. My father did not reveal his name but he said that that person had told him that since he feared his end was near he wished to present that brush in advance; my father was not to use it until he had actually celebrated his sixtieth birthday.

  My father valued this writing brush highly. After he had shown it to me he put it back into the locked box where he kept his jade collection."

  "That writing brush", Judge Dee said gravely, "is the instrument that killed your father!"

  Candidate Ding looked bewildered at the brush in his hands. He scrutinized it carefully and peered inside the hollow shaft. Then he shook his head doubtfully.

  Judge Dee had followed intently his every move. Then he said curtly:

  "Give that brush back to me. I shall demonstrate how the deed was done!"

  When Candidate Ding had handed back the brush, Judge Dee kept it in his left hand. With his right he took a small wooden cylinder from his sleeve and held it up so that every one could see it.

  "This", he said, "is an exact replica in wood of the hilt of the small knife that was found in General Ding's throat; it is just as long as the entire dagger including the blade. I shall now insert it into the hollow shaft of this brush."

  The stick fitted exactly into the shaft. But when it had gone in for half an inch, it stuck.

  Judge Dee handed the brush to Ma Joong.

  "Press this stick further down!", he ordered.

  Ma Joong placed his large thumb over the protruding end of the stick. With evident difficulty he pressed it down till it had disappeared into the shaft.

  He looked expectantly at the judge.

  "Stretch out your arm and release your thumb as quickly as you can!" ordered, the judge.

  The wooden stick shot up in the air for about five feet, then clattered down on the stoneflags.

  Judge Dee leaned back in his chair. Stroking his beard he said slowly:

  "This writing brush is an ingenious instrument of death. Its hollow shaft contains a number of thin coils of what I presume to be southern rattan. After he had inserted these coils the person who made this instrument pressed them down as far as they would go with a hollow tube. He poured melted resin of the lacquer tree down that tube and held the coils down till the resin had completely dried. Then he removed the tube and replaced it by this."

  Judge Dee opened a small box and with great care took from it the knife that had been found in the dead General's throat.

  "You will see", he continued, "that its tubular hilt fits exactly into the shaft of this brush, while its hollow blade fits its curved inside. Even if one peered into the shaft, the knife would be invisible.

  Some years ago a certain person presented this writing brush to the General and therewith pronounced his death sentence. He knew that when the General would use this brush, he would sooner or later burn its tip in a candle to discard the superfluous hairs, as we all do when we start writing with a new brush. The heat of the flame would soften the resin, the coils would be released and the poisoned knife would shoot out of the shaft. It was a ten to one chance that it would hit the victim in the face or throat. Afterwards the coils would be invisible because they would have stretched out along the inside to the hollow shaft."

  While Judge Dee was speaking Candidate Ding had first shown an expression of utter bewilderment. Slowly this expression had changed to one of incredulous horror. Now he cried out:

  "Who, Your Honour, contrived this diabolical device?"

  "He signed his name to the deed", Judge Dee said quietly. "But for that fact I would never have solved this riddle. Let me read out to you the inscription:

  'With respectful congratulations on the completion of six cycles. The Abode of Tranquillity.' "

  "Who is that? I have never heard that studio name!", Candidate Ding cried out.

  Judge Dee nodded.

  "It was known only to a few intimate friends", he replied. Yesterday I found out that it is the pen name of the late Governor Yoo Shou-chien!"

  Loud exclamations rose from the audience.

  When the excitement had subsided Judge Dee spoke:

  "It so happens that on the same day both the father and the son appear in this tribunal, the son alive and the father in spirit.

  You, Candidate Ding, will probably know better than I what deed of your father motivated old Governor Yoo to condemn him to death and to execute the sentence himself in this singular way. However this may be, I cannot proceed against the dead. I, the magistrate, herewith declare the case closed!"

  Judge Dee let his gavel descend on the bench. He rose and disappeared through the screen behind the dais.

  While the spectators filed out of the court hall they talked excitedly about the unexpected solution of the General's murder. They were full of praise for Judge Dee for having found out this ingenious dev
ice. A few elderly men with experience in court matters, however, were doubtful. They could not understand the significance of the incident of the box with plums and remarked to each other that evidently there was more to this case than met the eye.

  When Headman Fang entered the quarters of the guards he found Woo waiting for him.

  Woo bowed deeply for the headman and said hastily:

  "Please allow me to take part in the search for your daughter!"

  Headman Fang looked at him thoughtfully. Then he answered:

  "Since you, Mr. Woo, were prepared to suffer severe torture for my daughter's sake, I shall welcome your assistance. I have an order to carry out just now. Wait here for a few moments, when I am back I shall tell you everything about our first unsuccessful search."

  Cutting short Woo's protests, the headman walked to the gate and surveyed the crowd that was streaming out. He saw Candidate Ding who was just stepping out into the street. Headman Fang overtook him and said:

  "Mr. Ding, His Excellency would like to see you for a moment in his private office."

  Judge Dee was sitting behind his desk with his four lieutenants gathered round him. The judge had ordered Tao Gan to saw the shaft of the writing brush in two. They had seen the clot of resin at the bottom of the shaft, and the thin rattan staves stretched out along its inside.

  When Headman Fang had shown Candidate Ding in, Judge Dee turned to his lieutenants and said:

  Your presence is no longer required!"

  They rose and left for the corridor. Chiao Tai, however, remained standing in front of Judge Dee's desk.

  "Your Honour", he said stiffly, "I beg to be allowed to stay!"

  Judge Dee raised his eyebrows and shot a curious look at Chiao Tai's impassive face. Then he nodded and motioned to a footstool by the side of his desk.

  Chiao Tai sat down and Candidate Ding made a move to follow his example. But as the judge did not ask him to be seated, after some hesitation the young man remained standing where he was. Then Judge Dee spoke:

  "Candidate Ding, I refrained from denouncing your late father in public. Were it not for some special reason which I shall specify presently, I would not denounce him before you who are his only son.

  I know exactly why your father was compelled to resign. The confidential documents relating to that case happened to pass through the Office of Records and Compilation in the capital when I was working there. There were no details, for not a single eye-witness to your father's black deed survived the disaster. Commander Woo, however, collected sufficient secondary evidence to show beyond doubt that your father was responsible for the massacre of one entire regiment of our Imperial army.

  When political considerations prevented the authorities from indicting your father, Governor Yoo decided that he himself would execute him as he deserved. The old Governor was a fearless man, he would have killed your father openly were it not that that would have involved the Governor's own family. Therefore he decided that the deed would be done after he had placed himself beyond the pale of human justice.

  I would not make bold to pass judgement on the Governor's actions, a man like he can never be measured by ordinary standards. I only wish to make it perfectly clear to you that I know all the facts."

  Candidate Ding did not answer. It was evident that he knew of his father's crime. He had bent his head and stood there looking silently at the floor.

  Chiao Tai was sitting quite still. He looked straight in front of him with unseeing eyes.

  Judge Dee silently stroked his long beard for a few moments. Then he said:

  "Having thus disposed of your father's case, Candidate Ding, I now come to you yourself!"

  Chiao Tai rose.

  "I beg to be excused, Your Honour!"

  Judge Dee nodded. Chiao Tai left the room.

  The judge did not speak for a while.

  At last Candidate Ding looked up fearfully. He shrank back as he saw the burning eyes of the judge bore into his.

  Gripping the arms of his chair the judge leaned forward and said contemptuously:

  "Look at your magistrate, you miserable wretch!"

  The young man looked at him with deadly fear in his eyes.

  "You despicable fool!", Judge Dee spat in a voice trembling with wrath, "you thought you could deceive me, your magistrate, with your foul plot!"

  With an effort the judge mastered himself. When he spoke again his voice was steady. But it had a merciless metal ring that made Candidate Ding cringe with fear.

  "It was not Woo Feng who planned to kill your father with poison. It was you, his only son!

  Woo's arrival in Lan-fang supplied you with the idea for covering the crime you were contemplating. You started rumours about Woo, you spied on him. It was you who, sneaking into Woo's studio when he was out or in the midst of one of his drinking bouts, abstracted a piece of paper bearing an impression of his seal!"

  Candidate Ding opened his mouth.

  Judge Dee crashed his fist on the desk.

  "Be silent and listen!", he barked.

  "On the night of your father's anniversary you had the box with poisoned plums ready in your sleeve. When your father left the hall you, his dutiful son, escorted him to his library. The steward walked behind you.

  Your father unlocked the door. You knelt down and wished him good night. The steward stepped inside and lighted the two candles on the desk. Then you took the box from your sleeve and silently presented it to your father. Probably you bowed. The inscription on top of the box made any explanation superfluous. Your father thanked you and put the box in his left sleeve.

  At that very moment the steward stepped out again. He thought he saw your father put the key back into his sleeve, and he thought that the words of thanks he heard your father say referred to your wishing him good night. But there is an unexplained interval of two minutes or so, the time during which the steward lighted the two candles. Why should your father have been standing there with the key in his hand? Of course he had put it back in his sleeve as soon as he had unlocked the door. It was the box with the poisoned plums that the steward saw him putting in his sleeve. The instrument with which a depraved son planned to kill his own father!"

  Judge Dee's eyes bored like daggers into Ding's. The young man had started to tremble all over, but the could not avert his eyes from Judge Dee's compelling gaze.

  "You did not murder your father", the judge continued in a low voice. "Before he had even opened the box, the hand of the dead Governor struck."

  JUDGE DEE CONFRONTS A CRIMINAL WITH THE EVIDENCE

  Candidate Ding swallowed several times. Then he cried out in an unnatural voice:

  "Why, why should I want to kill my own father?"

  The judge rose. He took up the roll with his notes on the Ding case. Standing in front of Candidate Ding he said in a terrible voice:

  "You utter fool! You dare to ask this question? You dare to ask why, while in your sordid scribblings you not only clearly mentioned the depraved woman who was the cause of your hatred for your father, but also betrayed your sinful

  relations?"

  Throwing the roll into Ding's face the judge continued: "Re-read what you wrote in your miserable poem about 'breasts white as snow', and 'the moon that is not marred by its spots'. It so happened that a maid servant reported to me that the fourth wife of your father has an unsightly mole on her left breast. You are guilty of the descipable crime of adultery with one of your father's wives!" A deep silence reigned in the room. When the judge spoke again his voice was tired. "I could accuse in the tribunal you and your paramour of this shameful adultery. But the main purpose of the law is to restore the damage caused by a criminal act. In this case there is nothing to restore. What we can and shall do, however, is to prevent the rot from spreading further.

  You know what gardeners do when a branch of a tree is rotten to the core. They cut that branch off so that the tree itself may live. Your father is dead, you are his only son, and you have no children you
rself. You will realize that this line of the Ding clan must be cut off. That is all, Candidate Ding!"

  Candidate Ding turned round. He left the office walking as a man in a dream.

  A knock sounded on the door.

  Judge. Dee 's face lit up as he saw Chiao Tai come in.

  "Sit down, Chiao Tai!" he said with a tired smile.

  Chiao Tai seated himself on a footstool, his face pale and drawn. He began without any preliminary, speaking in a toneless voice, as if reading aloud an official report.

  "Ten years ago, in the autumn, General Ding Hoo-gwo with seven thousand men met with a slightly superior force of barbarians across the northern border. If he had offered battle he would have had an even chance to win.

  But he did not want to risk his life. He opened secret negotations and bribed the barbarian general to withdraw. Then the barbarian insisted that his warriors could not return to their tents without several hundred enemy heads to show their prowess in battle.

  General Ding ordered the sixth battalion of the left wing to detach themselves from the main army and take up an advanced position in a valley. It counted eight hundred men led by Commander Liang, one of the most gallant officers of the Imperial army, and eight captains.

  As soon as the battalion had entered the valley two thousand barbarians swooped down on them from the mountains. Our men fought bravely but their valour was of no avail against such superior numbers. The entire battalion was massacred. The barbarians cut off as many heads as they could, stuck them on their spears and rode away.

  Seven captains had been hacked to pieces. The eighth had been stunned by a spear blow on his helmet and left for dead under his horse. He came to when the barbarians had left and found himself the only survivor."

  Chiao Tai's voice had become strained. Perspiration streamed down his haggard face. He continued:

  "That captain found his way back to the capital and there accused General Ding before the Board of Military Affairs. He was told that the affair was closed and that he should forget all about it.

  Then that captain threw away his army uniform. He swore that he would not rest till he had found General Ding and cut off his head. He changed his name, joined a band of chivalrous highwaymen, and for some years roamed all over the Empire searching for General Ding. Then, one day, he met a magistrate travelling to his post. That man taught him the meaning of justice, and…"